a valuable building material to augment the softer, easily worked sandstone. The larger boulders are frequently seen in use as building foundations, while the smaller cobbles are widely employed in the drystone field-walls which form another characteristic feature of the area. The village is bounded both to the north and to the south by geological faults. The southerly fault (the Lounthwaite Fault) is considered particularly important in relation to the development of the village as it is associated with a line of strong-running springs. These may have been attractive to early settlers. Higher up the fell side to the north, the St Bees Sandstone is overlain by limestone. A number of ruined lime kilns and small quarries indicate that the limestone has been burnt in the past to produce lime for building and agricultural purposes. Lime makes an excellent mortar for sandstone buildings. Spread on the land it also reduces the acidity of soil and improves its fertility. Further to the north still, sandwiched between these intake fields and the steep slopes of the Pennine escarpment itself lies a complex geological zone known as the Cross Fell Inlier (see Burgess and Wadge). It consists of a lens of older rocks faulted upwards between the much younger layers that bound it. The whole North Pennines AONB, of which the Inlier forms part, is in fact of such interest to geologists that in 2003 it was designated a Geopark under a Unesco programme to promote public interest in geology. From an agricultural perspective, however, the Geopark is simply an area of poorly drained grazing that becomes progressively less useful as its altitude increases. Nevertheless, the lower slopes of the inlier are still sufficiently valuable to be enclosed, largely with drystone walling, and are used for grazing sheep and cattle. Fell ponies are also raised here. Immediately above the village, this area is known as Red Carle. Still further to the north, the steep fellsides above the Inlier are unenclosed and grazed exclusively by sheep. In the past this would perhaps be best described as "ranching" as, in the summer the sheep would range freely over the top of the Pennine escarpment and down into Teesdale. Regular "gathers" would be held to round them up for dipping and shearing. Much has changed in this respect, however, since the catastrophic foot-and-mouth outbreak of 2001. The "hefted" herds which had previously acquired a useful territorial